Editorial Reviews

Reviews For Caution: Witch in Progress

The following reviews are for: Caution: Witch in Progress (previously published as ‘Gertie Gets it Right (eventually)’ under a different cover)

Reviewed by Anne Boling for Readers’ Favorite

In Caution: Witch in Progress by Lynne North, we meet Gertie who comes from a long line of witches, the kind with a wart on the end of their crooked nose. However, Gertie’s appearance is a bit of a disappointment; her nose is straight without any signs of a wart, her skin is a normal healthy color and she was not born with sharp pointy teeth. The residents of Vile Vale are all witches and warlocks and they were shocked to see a “normal” child in their midst.
Gertie is a pleasant, loving child with great compassion for others — including toads. When Gertie goes to a special private school for supernatural children, she meets some very odd characters: a talking grouchy umbrella named Bat, a toad named Wart, an owl with eye problems, and a monster with a tummy ache. Gertie doesn’t fit in very well with the other students but does make one friend, Bertha. Gertie has all the qualities humans could possibly want in their child: beauty, kindness, and compassion. She isn’t very good at casting spells –- which is tough when you are a witch.
I absolutely love this tale. Gertie is a character with personality that jumps off the page. Readers will find they are laughing out loud at some of the antics. Caution: Witch in Progress by Lynne North is a tale about growing up. Poor Gertie faces the same situations that children face every day, the struggle to fit in. I can easily see this becoming a popular series. I hope the author will expand this idea into a whole series of books, movies, and toys.

Review by Piers Anthony!

I read Caution: Witch in Progress, by Lynne North. Ghostly Publishing www.ghostlypublishing.co.uk This is a children’s fantasy featuring a girl, Gertie, born into a witch family, who doesn’t show signs of being witchy. That’s awkward. When she tries at least to get a decent wart by rubbing a warty toad and saying a spell, poof! the toad loses all its warts. Finally they send her off to witch’s school and surprise, she loves it. Most of the novel is about the classes she takes and what she is learning, such as how to Grimace, shoot fire from her fingers, levitate objects, and other routine spells. Her best friend there loves to eat beyond all else, and Gertie’s studying ways tend to alienate her from classmates. One show-off summons a demon he then doesn’t know how to banish, which is trouble because only the summoner can properly banish it, and the demon has an ugly attitude. Some demons are like that. But in the end Gertie comes through with one of those surprises that makes perfect sense in retrospect. It’s interesting and fun, and its age-level should like it.

Jo Logan, former Editor of Prediction magazine

Born and brought up in Vile Vale, Gertie came from a long line of witches but was always different, in looks and actions, from the rest of its inhabitants, though no one knew why. And later, when she went to the Academy to improve her witchy skills, she still had trouble fitting in with the other students despite her best efforts. She did though make one very close friend there, Bertha, who was also regarded as a bit of an oddity, but for very different reasons.
Among Gertie’s childhood companions are such strange creatures as a talking umbrella, a smooth-skinned toad and a very near-sighted owl, all of whom have their part to play in her story. A story that is always interesting, never frightening and full of humour. Miss North’s fertile imagination has provided us with a delightful fantasy tale which will entertain and amuse children of all ages and perhaps more than a few young at heart adults too.

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